


Eddie & Terry

by k4writer02



Category: Bruce Springsteen - Born To Run
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2009-12-24
Updated: 2009-12-24
Packaged: 2017-10-05 06:14:25
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 744
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/38616
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/k4writer02/pseuds/k4writer02
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Creating characters out of the songs in Born to Run and mixing them all up together. Yuletide madness</p>
            </blockquote>





	Eddie & Terry

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Lusa](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lusa/gifts).



> In answer to your prompt, how cool is it that this is a fandom option this year, I'll answer that it's SO cool I had to write something in this category. The idea of tie ins between songs was really productive, even if it doesn't look like it in the final product.
> 
> I wrote this in about a half hour on Christmas Eve so I am sorry if it's a bit confusing or if it isn't all it could be

Eddie orders a round from the guy working at the little seaside bar and shoots the breeze while he pulls the beers and mixes the girls' cocktails. Eddie gathers up the drinks and brings them over to the corner table where Terry's holding court. He ain't all there all the time, Terry, not since his year in Vietnam, but Eddie's watched him charm the clothes off more than one girl. Whereas Eddie smiles too much and dresses like the mechanic he is. He doesn't have Terry's style or Terry's words, but he does have one thing Terry never will.

Eddie's girl, Wendy, smiles at him, and accepts her drink with a quick kiss. The girl she brought for Eddie to meet, Mary, smiles a pretty thank you, but it's clear Mary feels a bit out of place, since this was supposed to be a blind date, of sorts. And Terry's girl, Cherry, takes the drink like it's her due, like it should've been there ten minutes ago. Eddie didn't tell Terry that Wendy was bringing Mary, mostly because he didn't know. He thought that it was going to be like the old days, just him and Eddie in this half-forgotten bar off Highway 9, where the sand and the scrubby pines provided the backdrop to the greatest summer of their lives.

Eddie misses those days—God, he really does. Misses being 17, and drunk on freedom, fast cars, pretty girls, summer and rock'n'roll. Terry was 18 that summer.

They had known each other from around, but they got to be friends around that season. Why? Why does anyone become friends? Neither of them had a car, but they could still talk cars. Really, it was music and girls and the beach. There's nothing on earth like the Jersey Shore in July, nothing like the water and the sun and the sand. For two backstreet boys, it was heaven on earth to spend days they weren't working down the shore, drinking and bullshitting about girls they'd get someday. Except Terry'd gotten some, and even Eddie'd had a girl. He remembers telling Terry "she's the one." And Terry had told him "There might be lots of 'ones'."

Eddie'd been pissed about that, but then Terry's number got called, and they'd drunk themselves unconscious. Terry went to Vietnam, and Eddie got a real job, working 9 to 5 for a boss man. He bought a motorcycle. He met a girl. He first saw Wendy at night, the only time he really felt alive. She'd been combing her hair in the rearview at a red light. She'd been so pretty he hadn't noticed anything else while he jockeyed his way up next to her car. He didn't even try to look cool or hard; he'd chased after her, calling out questions.

He'd convinced her to run away with him, convinced her he was the man for her. They got out of that dusty town, where nothing ever changed, where dreams went to die, and he brought her down highway 9 to the Shore, where he knew it was possible to be really and truly happy.

And Terry came back to the States, but he was a bit scrambled. He acted like the old Terry, occasionally. But mostly, he got himself in really deep shit and expected Eddie to tag along for the ride, like the kid he'd been.

Cherry's a case in point. She's left Terry at least four times; last time, over the radio, Eddie really thought that was it. Eddie'd gotten them a ride for the meeting, but the guy didn't show; even Terry started to see he was just talking that time.

Eddie sees the appeal—Cherry's evil, but she is fine. Mary on the other hand—Mary's more like Wendy, the kind of girl you want with you when you run away, the kind who'd make Thunder Road the kind of lover's lane where no one can tell what's flesh and fantasy, where love is true, and the kiss is everlasting.

And he can see in Terry's eyes, the way he's talking to Mary, the way he looks at her like he really sees her, the way Cherry's flipping her hair and inserting herself into the conversation, that Terry's finally ready to shape up, pack up his car and pull out of this state, to find better.

Eddie takes a pull of his beer, and knows he'll be here waiting and working for that.


End file.
